CustomGuitarGear: Jekeko Fixed Wah

"Parking" is the technique of moving your wah pedal to find a sweet spot, then stopping when you hear it; if you''re lucky, some muscular, snarly overdrive comes along. Listen to Mick Ronson - Aladdin Sane is the perfect display of snarling, parked-wah tones. Players as diverse as Tony Iommi, Michael Schenker and Eric Clapton are also renowned for their mastery of the motionless wah. Ironically, the difficulty in using wahs in this fashion is not in finding these sounds, but in replicating them. Subsequent attempts are generally when the expletives fly, if not the wah pedal itself.

Housed in a green-sparkle, standard stomp-box enclosure, the Jekeko is a phenomenal sounding wah without the bothersome treadle, making locating, and more importantly, re-locating those tasty parked-wah tones a breeze. The Jekeko features big, toe-friendly chicken-head knobs for the Sweep and Level controls along with true bypass switching and a side-mounted 9VDC jack. Built by HBE for CustomGuitarGear.com, the interior construction looks tidy and offers an adjustable gain pot.

The Jekeko offers up plenty of gain with the factory trim-pot settings - I was able to get the desired breakup by simply setting the Level control between 3 and 5 o''clock. Selecting the sweet spot with the Sweep knob was equally simple: just turn until you start smiling. Of course, it''s still a wah, so don''t be surprised when it behaves like one. When placed too close to a Pedal Power II, it hummed when engaged. It also likes to be placed in front of any buffers in the signal chain, again, just like any other wah - it didn''t sound bad after a couple of stacked ODs, just not as magical.

If you''re in the mood for some parking, order one, learn "Cracked Actor" and "Mother Mary," then just try to wipe the grin off your face.

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